YOUTH • marauder's era [year one]

Chapter 5 | Love, Lily

LILY EVANS WAS more than ready for her first day of classes; not only did she lay out her outfit the night before, but she had taken the liberty of reading through the first few chapters in all of her textbooks. According to the other Gryffindor first-year girls, Marlene and Mary, that was "utterly insane behavior."

Therefore, when her perfectly-planned day was abruptly spoiled by the presence of James Potter and Sirius Black in the Great Hall for breakfast that morning, Lily was more than annoyed.

After hearing rumors about Sirius Black's family situation, Lily had realized that her Slytherin comment the night before may have crossed a line. So she took it upon herself to apologize to the boy first thing in the morning.

With a broad smile on his face, Sirius had graciously accepted her apology, and Lily was under the impression that she had smoothed things out between them.

But oh, was she wrong.

Merely minutes after she sat down to eat, an eruption of giggles broke out, coming from James and Sirius. They were looking in the direction of the Slytherin table, and when Lily followed their gazes, she understood why: Severus Snape, who she had proclaimed to be her best friend to the boys the night before, had received a howler.

Despite being Muggle-born, Lily had read about howlers in various Witch's magazines she had read over the summer. But despite everything she had read, she had heard nothing about singing howlers.

Though Sev attempted to flee from the Great Hall before the howler burst open, he only made it a few steps before a horrible, clearly-enchanted-female voice began to sing:

Oh Severus, how I love you so!

In looking at you, my eyes do glow;

My heart runs wild, my mind goes silly!

Please marry me! Love, Lily.

When the howler finished and Sirius Black was so hysterical that there were genuine tears in his eyes, Lily knew immediately that he was the source of it. Pumpkin juice in hand, she stormed over his way and seethed, "I hate you." She then dumped the drink on his head --- making sure it ran down his face --- and then spun on her heel and left.

She heard a chorus of whispers as she left Sirius to deal with the pumpkin juice, but Lily didn't care: she needed to talk to Sev.

She needed to make sure he knew this wasn't her doing, it was some stupid boy who seemed out to get her. Lily hadn't talked to him since the Sorting, and with a rivalry already existing between Gryffindor and Slytherin, not to mention what Sirius had alluded to last night about their contrasting blood statuses, Lily was concerned that their friendship might not survive Hogwarts.

But when Lily finally made it over to the Slytherin table, Sev was gone.

Lily felt sick to her stomach. Part of her wanted to cry, and the other part of her wanted to strangle Sirius and give his friend, James, a nice slap across the head.

She could only imagine how Sev was feeling right now; that was humiliating to watch, and she wasn't even the brunt of the joke despite her name being mentioned. It was only the first day of classes, and already, Sev was being bullied by those horrible Gryffindors.

"Lils, come on, you don't want to be late to class," suddenly Marlene was tugging on her arm, bringing Lily back to reality. She realized with a start that most of the Great Hall had already cleared out.

"We'll find him later," Mary assured her as they began to walk. "That was terrible, what Sirius did. No one blames you or Severus."

Lily nodded, but her new friends' words didn't do much to ease the sickness in her stomach. The only thing to make her feel slightly better was when Professor McGonagall, who she had for her first class of the day --- Transfiguration, didn't allow Sirius to leave to change his robes. He was forced to soak in pumpkin juice for the duration of class. In her words, he "should've chosen his breakfast more wisely."

---

After Transfiguration, Lily had Potions, where her path finally crossed with Sev. Not only was Gryffindor and Slytherin combined for the class, but they were tasked to work with partners --- and Lily took the opportunity to squeeze her way next to Sev.

"Hey," she said, trying her best to offer a reassuring smile. She didn't know if mentioning the events of breakfast would make things better or worse. When Sev didn't reply, she tried to bring it up, but was cut off by him, "I'm sorry about--"

"--Don't," Sev said with a slight shake of his head. "Let's just move on."

"Okay," Lily agreed. She felt a bit relieved, but as they started to work on their potion together, she couldn't help but feel like something still felt a bit off between them.

Regardless, Lily tried her best to catch up with him. She told him all about how much she hated Sirius and James --- that which he agreed upon --- and that she had befriended Marlene and Mary. So far, McGonagall was one of her favorite professors.

Severus told her that Slytherin was all he expected to be and more; the common room was lush and beautiful and it's a shame she couldn't join him there.

"Maybe if you tell Dumbledore how bad the other Gryffindors are," Sev proposed, "he'll let you switch houses."

"Maybe," Lily said, but she didn't have the heart to tell Sev that regardless of Sirius and James, she was in love with Gryffindor. The common room already felt like home, and she couldn't imagine going through Hogwarts in any other house.

By the end of the class period, not only were Sev and Lily back on speaking terms, but Lily had discovered her new favorite class: potions. She had a natural knack for it, and it helped that Professor Slughorn was constantly floating her way to give praise on nearly every move she made. She left beaming with joy and with her chest feeling significantly lighter than it did when she went in.

Lily was almost convinced that she could have a good day in spite of that morning's events. 

But as she was cleaning up, Sirius made it a point to walk by their table and cough out, "lovebirds."